A Sad Bird Story

I had attended today's blog to be about the first public meeting of Envision Easton which took place on Wednesday. It was an interesting and very positive event attended by about 70 Eastoners. But a happy story is for another day.

I've been feeding suet to my birds all winter long and have attracted a large number of woodpeckers.
Besides our common Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, I've seem the wonderful Red-bellied Woodpeckers pictured above. My bird feeders are near my driveway and yesterday I pulled in just as the little red-head landed on the suet. Always more nervous than the littler woodpeckers, the bird quickly ate a few bites before flying off with a beak full of suet. Why so nervous? woodpeckers never seem to touch the ground where the loathsome neighborhood cat waits for the unwary and the feeder is pretty safe from the hawks. I didn't think about the obvious until this morning when I realized she must have a nest she needs to get back to.

This morning I came out to go to school and found a Red-bellied woodpecker dead on the street just outside my driveway. Was she somehow killed by that miserable, murderous cat or a force of nature like the hawk and then dropped on the street? Perhaps not. On an early morning food run it looked as if she flew too low and was hit by a car. A terrible sight all beautiful feathers on a crushed body. I stopped to bury her and wonder about her nestlings. Hopefully the other parent can persevere.

What am I becoming that I feel the death of this little bird more than the lives and deaths of men?

Saint Luke had Jesus say "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?" Would that it is true although I suppose I'm too old to really believe it.

This Way to the Egress

The title of today's post comes from P. T. Barnum who fooled gullible New Yorkers to leave his often overcrowded museum of curiosities by installing a sign with that sentence. Among many other things New Yorkers apparently couldn't tell an Egress from an Egret. The visit of a Great Egret to Shovel Shop Pond made me think of old P. T. the other day. The Great Egret is an all white relative of the much more common Great Blue Heron.

I always think of pterodactyls when I see a Great Blue in flight, but the Great Egret was a thing of beauty as it took off from Shovel Shop and then flew a big circle over the property. Both the Heron and the Egret were saved by the MBTA. No not the MBTA that needs billion dollar bailouts for poor service and outdated technology. I'm talking about the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Around the turn of the century, the women of America decorated their hats with feathers from birds. The herons grow incredibly long and delicate feathers on their backs during the breeding season so they were shot by the tens of thousands. Dedicated birders fought to get a federal law passed only to see it get shot down by state's rights bird killers who, like our fisherman, believed it was their god given right to drive species into extinction.

The birder's didn't give up and got the Migratory Bird Treaty Act passed in 1918. This included a treaty with Great Britain (acting for Canada). When the enlightened state of Missouri sued to have this law thrown out, the Supreme Court was happy to point out that the treaty power of the federal government trumped the right of Missouri to kill birds. It was a precedent setting case on federal power. Massachusetts own Mr. Justice Holmes used the term "living Constitution" in his decision a view that is the basis for the "loose construction" philosophy of judicial decision making.

Thus, the Egret was protected, and so today it lives on as does the spirit of Barnum. Note that it is Shovel SHOP Pond, but the new development, no doubt to attract the Von Snootens to Easton, insist on calling it the Shovel WORKS.  Apparently Spade Verkstad, Pá Fabrica , or Shovel Mhonarcha, (Swedish, Portuguese, and Irish) were too reflective of the blue collar people who, you know, actually worked there. Let's go all the way and call it the Schaufelwerks from now on. After all we did steal the idea of the folding army shovel from the Germans.

Coming Soon Easton's Newest Restaurant

For those of you who did not make the trek to the fun (but frozen) event at Edwin Keach Park, you missed a great time. Many town groups and businesses were on hand and lots of free gifts were available. It was wonderful to see the park, a great community effort, in such great shape. Just a perfect down home day and a chance to catch up with a number of Edwin's classmates. I think there will be more special days at this site as well as its use as a multi-sport facility

Perhaps the biggest news was a table set up by the couple that will be opening The Farmer's Daughter restaurant on Main Street. This long awaited opening will take place next month. The restaurant will be open for breakfast and lunch. Closed Mondays, I believe they will open at 6 Tuesday through Saturday and 7 on Sunday. Sadly the only samples being handed out yesterday were sample menus, but it looks like we may be in for a real treat.

For example, for breakfast you could start with the Farmer's Choice which is two eggs any style, crispy smashed potatoes and either  bacon, onion and apple sausage or sweet potato turkey hash. Both Huevos Ranchero and Arroz con Huevos add an exotic bit to the menu while the Stonehill is a bagel sandwich with either fried or scrambled eggs and Vermont Cheddar (you can add on more) In the sweet section there are enough offerings to make my blood sugar go off the charts just reading them although I'm imagining the possibility of the Blue Corn Griddle Cakes and a long walk at the Governor Ames Estate. The sample breakfast menu ended with small plates that included smoked salmon with toasted brioche, creme fraiche, capers and fresh dill. There will also be a Quiche of the Day and a Cheese Plate. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Green Eggs and Ham All Grown Up-toasted croissant, fried egg, pesto, crispy prosciutto, slow roasted tomato and baby greens. Then there's the Skinny "Chick" Omelet, but you'll just have to wait for that one.

Lunch will run the gamut from good old fashioned cheeseburgers (from locally sourced beef), and turkey, ham, or veggie sandwiches to more exotic offerings like the Bangkok Wrap, Pulled Pork, and their take on the Cuban. Perhaps most intriguing for a guy who has hated the look and smell of tuna sandwiches there will be a Not Your Mom's Tuna Melt with imported oil preserved tuna, fontina cheese, roasted peppers and salsa verde on pressed sourdough. The salads look good too from the Thai Steak Salad to a Pan Asian Salad that features black quinoa, slaw, edamane, and your choice of several proteins. I have fond memories of a wonderful Salad Nicoise eaten many years ago in Quebec so I'm especially looking forward to the version at the The Farmer's Daughter. If all this wasn't enough, this is only the sample menu remember, more is promised, and the menu notes that you can ask for things off the menu too! Their motto is "if we can make it, we will."

Suddenly Easton is developing a very competitive restaurant scene for the early part of the day. The Farmer's Daughter has huge potential depending on three factors. First, like all restaurants it has to find its niche in the price structure. The other factors are location based. As we all know parking is a problem in North Easton and we will be digging up the streets very soon. If we enjoy the food there we'll have to make a special effort to stop by until foot traffic from the new apartments at Shovel Shop can provide a solid base of every day customers. The owners plan to put up an awning and have a few tables outside bistro fashion, but that may not be possible due to the onerous necessity of putting in a handicapped ramp, the third problem. Doug King has already removed the historic doors from the building to meet handicapped code, but, as the buildings on Main Street get renovated we will be stuck with more and more unsightly ramps unless a historic preservation waiver is granted or a creative alternative like the ones at 100 and 104 Main Street can be devised. So far no luck on a historic waiver which is very sad. Don't get me wrong-I wheeled my Mom around for a couple of years so I know how important access is-but some compromise is needed if our historic downtown is going to add to the "brand" that is Easton.

We also need to remember our excellent other lunch spots like Andrews Cafe. Recently added is the new Slice of Greek across from Stonehill (try their Greek specialties, yum! The Moussaka lunch special is excellent)  and the wonderful Not Just Thaboulle (try their Mid-East specialties, but don't forget their Angus Burger or Grilled Cheese!).  Finally, for those that cross the border for breakfast there is the good old extremely consistent and highly affordable Stonebridge and Back Bay Bagel. Take it from someone who worked in Randolph in the old days-Back Bay Bagel makes great bagels even if you have to have them hollowed out to reduce the carbs. I'd hate to lose any of these spots not to mention my dinner favorites. I'm going to do my part-does anyone want to buy a used stove?

Did Insomnia and a IPad Game Save My Life?

I often doze off in my recliner these days. Last weekend I woke up around 1 am to hear a lawyer informing me that if I took Januvia, a diabetic drug, I was at high risk for pancreatic cancer and getting ripped off by the aforesaid personal injury lawyer. Yipes! I've been on Januvia for several years. Luckily, I had my half year check up on Tuesday so I had a chance to ask my doctor about this. He said he had heard the rumors and had read up on the issue and made calls about it as well. To the best of his knowledge there had been no cases of pancreatic cancer associated with Januvia and that the concern was based on an animal study from a few years back. The problem is that all diabetics are at an increased risk of pancreatitis, a potentially fatal inflammation of the insulin producing gland, as well as pancreatic cancer. Diabetics are at increased risk for everything except getting hit by a bus. All drugs have some risk and Januvia might double your chance of getting pancreatitis from 3 in a 1000 to 6 in a 1000. I've played the horses all my life and never hit a 160 to 1 shot so my doctor and I decided to let things ride for the next six months. That was a particularly important decision because the combination of medicine I was on lowered my A1C score from  7.5 to 7.0 (5.8 is the top end of normal)

Fast forward to the next day. I was on my IPad playing a wonderful game called Stock Wars. The game pits me versus 135,000 other "investors" who buy and sell real stocks using real news stories and play money.  I follow the strategy recommended by Peter Lynch to invest in things you know so I'm heavily into Green Mountain Coffee. I learned that despite buy recommendations from some stock bloggers, an insider had just sold 95,000 shares causing the price to drop. I turned to another app called StockTouch to find an alternate investment. StockTouch follows the top 100 companies in 9 sectors and labels them green for going up and red for going down. We geezers are doing wonders for the Health Care Sector so I clicked on that day's winner Eli Lilly and discovered something very troubling.

StockTouch had included an article about Januvia and its sister drugs. A brand new study from the UCLA school of medicine had just been released this week in the medical journal Diabetes. The study showed how Januvia worked in the pancreas. It worked by stimulating the creation of abnormal cells in the pancreas. Besides that the pancreases of a number of people taking Januvia showed precanerous tumors while those diabetics not taking the pill and the non-diabetic control group showed none of these signs. I faxed this over to my doctor and 24 hours later I was off Januvia and given two months to see if I needed to replace it with insulin. Don't know if the doc was responding to my repeated concern or the new data, but I've been Januvia free for two days. Sadly, I'm also going to be beer and carbohydrate free from now on.

Now here's the thing. I hear it takes two miracles to make a saint. Me finding this article out of all the data on my IPad app is something like a miracle. IPad=Steve Jobs, America's most famous victim of pancreatic cancer. Saint Steve?

Big Event This Saturday

Congratulations to the energetic Meredith Keach and the whole Keach family for organizing a real hometown event for the Grand Opening of the Edwin Keach Memorial Park on Chestnut Street this Saturday starting at 9 am. There will be all sorts of features and activities for both adults and kids with a First Flag Flying Ceremony and Ribbon Cutting at noon. There will also be a number of Easton organizations on hand making this the biggest shindig in town since the Lion’s Club Holiday Festival of Lights.

The Agricultural Commission will have an informational booth for those of you who would like to get a plot at the new Community Gardens on Bay Road. Langwater Farms, Easton largest farm, will be hosting a special planting event for children. Don’t know if you can still purchase a CSA at Langwater, but they will soon be offering top quality organically grown produce at their own Farm Stand on Washington Street.

Information about the 15^th season of The Original Easton Farmers Market, Easton’s first outdoor summer market, will also be available. Oakdale Farms, a major supplier of the Farmers Market for all 15 seasons, will be on hand. Those of you who have missed Marie at the winter market the last couple of weeks will get a chance to talk to her, stock up on her quality home grown produce and purchase a summer CSA.

So Eastoners or is that Eastonites? Come to Edwin Keach Park this Saturday for a great event to kick off the Spring.